{"id":13370,"date":"2019-01-26T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-delta-4-heavy-blasts-off-from-vandenberg\/"},"modified":"2019-01-26T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-26T14:00:08","slug":"photos-delta-4-heavy-blasts-off-from-vandenberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-delta-4-heavy-blasts-off-from-vandenberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Delta 4-Heavy blasts off from Vandenberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first of up to seven United Launch Alliance missions lifted off Jan. 19 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where a Delta 4-Heavy launcher fired into orbit with 2.1 million pounds of thrust from three hydrogen-fueled RS-68A main engines with a U.S. government spy satellite.<\/p>\n

The orange and white launcher, standing 233 feet (71 meters) tall, lifted off from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg at 11:10 a.m. PST (2:10 p.m. EST; 1910 GMT) on Jan. 19, after more than a month of delays caused by technical concerns with the Delta 4-Heavy rocket, and bouts of bad weather.<\/p>\n

The launch marked the 11th flight of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket \u2014 the most powerful in ULA\u2019s inventory \u2014 the third time the heavy-duty launcher variant has flown from Vandenberg, a military base around 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

The Delta 4-Heavy delivered to orbit a top secret spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office after heading south-southeast from Vandenberg over the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Read our full story on the launch for details on the mission.<\/p>\n

The photos posted below show the Delta 4-Heavy on the launch pad during rollback of the mobile gantry at SLC-6, followed by ignition of the three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A main engines and the Delta 4-Heavy\u2019s climb away from then Pacific coastline.<\/p>\n

The flames visible in the photos during engine startup are normal for the Delta 4-Heavy, which is covered in orange insulation to protect the vehicle. The insulation was blackened during the ignition sequence, as expected.<\/p>\n

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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first of up to seven United Launch Alliance missions lifted off Jan. 19 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where a Delta 4-Heavy launcher fired into orbit with 2.1 million pounds of thrust from three hydrogen-fueled RS-68A main engines with a U.S. government spy satellite. The orange and white launcher, standing 233 feet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,1688,1408,25,848,2750,2752,750],"class_list":["post-13370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-delta-4","tag-delta-4-heavy","tag-launch","tag-national-reconnaissance-office","tag-nrol-71","tag-spy-satellite","tag-united-launch-alliance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}